PRAIRIE SPOTTED SKUNK 
355 
NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRAIRIE 
SPOTTED SKUNK IN IOWA. 
B. H. BAILEY. 
In 1906 the U. S. Department of Agriculture published faunal 
bulletin No. 26 by Arthur H. Howell, Assistant Biologist of the 
U. S. Biological Survey on the ‘‘Revision of the Skunks of the 
Genus Spilogale”. According to this report the only species re- 
ferred to Iowa is Spilogale interrupt a Raf., three specimens of 
which were examined from this state, one of which came from 
Gladbrook, and two from Marshalltown. His distributional map 
shows the range of this species as extending to southeastern Min- 
nesota on the following statement by Mr. E. T. Seton “He (E. T. 
Seton) states that two were killed by a trapper in March, 1904, 
on the Mississippi river 40 miles southeast of Minneapolis. The 
animal was previously unknown to trappers in that region, so 
that this is doubtless an instance of recent extension of range. ’’ 
In a more recent work, “Mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin,’^ 
by Dr. C. B. Cory of the Field Museum, Chicago, is the follow- 
ing : ‘ ‘ This species may occur in western Wisconsin, as its range 
is known to extend to northeastern Iowa and the southeastern 
border of Minnesota but so far as known it has not as yet been 
taken within our limits.” Whether Dr. Cory or others have 
actually examined specimens from northeastern Iowa I do not 
know, but a head of Spilogale interrupta which was killed at 
Chester, Howard county, Iowa, April 20, 1915, makes certain the 
fact that they are found there. 
As to the region in Iowa south and east of Marshalltown no 
published account of the distribution in this territory of animals 
of this genus could be discovered. I knew that spotted skunks 
or civet cats, as they are commonly called, are found about Cedar 
Rapids, and, hearing rumors that they extend farther south and 
east, a trip to Burlington and Keokuk, April 1 and 2, afforded 
the opportunity to make inquiry about this species in that part 
of the state. 
At Burlington I purchased from Mr. H. Ranke, a local furrier, 
a raw skin of Spilogale Merrupta which was taken about four 
miles north of the city, and he also permitted me to examine a 
number of tanned skins which unfortunately had the tails re- 
